Partners: the session, ready for your catalogue.
Conferences: the session, and a workshop I ran at Mind the Product for 320 people.
Hands-on AI workshop for product managers · 90 minutes · also runs as a half day · online or in person
For: product managers. No Claude experience needed; newcomers warm up on worked examples first.
What you’ll do: build an AI assistant with Claude, then write its stop, pivot and invest statements: the conditions under which you’d scrap it, change it or expand it.
You leave with: an assistant you built yourself; three written conditions for its future; and, if you’re new to Claude, a first working build.
Not: a tour of AI tools or a demo to watch.
Bring: a laptop and a free Claude account.
Led by: Adam Thomas, Head of Product at Flax & Teal, who has built internal agents on open-source models.
This hands-on AI workshop has run for a corporate client through First Principles, the training partner that brought me in. There’s no feedback from it to show yet, and no recording of it.
The nearest thing to watch is the 4:39 clip on Work, from an online webinar I hosted in 2024. It’s on metrics, not AI.
Mike took an earlier session of mine on the stop, pivot and invest call:
I’ve been using the approach to talk about a particular pilot I’m engaging in with a start-up. I’ve been very clear that there is a difference between a pilot and an enterprise roll-out and that we need to determine what are the non-negotiable success criteria for our organization to make sure that we are fully aligned on whether we kill, pivot, or move forward.
Mike
Bios, headshot and record
Each one is short enough for a form field. The facts match Work, so nobody finds two versions.
Adam Thomas teaches product managers to decide what to stop, pivot or invest in when AI makes building cheap. He is Head of Product at Flax & Teal and builds with Claude. He is Part-Time Faculty in MICA’s Product Management MPS and taught at Columbia in 2023–2024.
Adam Thomas teaches product managers the call that comes after building with AI: stop it, pivot it, or invest in it.
He is Head of Product at Flax & Teal. He builds with Claude and has built internal agents on open-source models, including a nutrition assistant, deck builders and copy editors.
At MICA, he is Part-Time Faculty in the Product Management MPS, where he designed and teaches the Product Design and UX Capstone. At Columbia, as a Lecturer in the M.S. Technology Management program in 2023–2024, he designed and taught Technology Management and AI/ML. He has taught for a corporate client through First Principles, run master classes for IxDF and a live session for O’Reilly, and led a 320-person workshop at Mind the Product.
He holds a BS in Computer Science and has 15 years in product. On that record, MICA and Columbia both appointed him to their graduate programs.
Photos by Richard Jimenez (ricksphotography.nyc) and Mike King.
Available: adjunct appointments from the next term, online or on campus.
Product Design and UX Capstone · MICA, Product Management MPS · designed and teaches (current)
Technology Management and AI/ML · Columbia, M.S. Technology Management · designed and taught, 2023–2024
Across both schools: full 16-week terms, sections of up to 70. He wrote the syllabi, graded and ran the LMS himself.
MICA · Part-Time Faculty, Product Management MPS (current)
Columbia · Lecturer, M.S. Technology Management (2023–2024)
First Principles · the hands-on AI workshop above, for a corporate client
IxDF · master classes on metrics, including “Data-Driven Design: Metrics That Drive Real Results”, 2024
O’Reilly · a live session on metrics, “Survival Metrics for Product Teams”
Mind the Product · a workshop, for a room of 320 people
Mind the Product · the #mtpcon Digital breakout “The Initiative Document”, 2020, not AI
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Online or in person. University courses: online or on campus. I’m based in New York.
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